EQT Mid Market acquires managed IT services provider Candidator

EQT Mid Market acquires Candidator, a Swedish managed IT services provider with capabilities for full IT outsourcing in Sweden and Norway

EQT Mid Market is committed to drive continued growth and further strengthen Candidator’s service offering both organically and through add-on acquisitions

Potential to further consolidate the fragmented Nordic managed IT services market

The EQT Mid Market Europe fund (“EQT Mid Market”) today announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire Candidator Holding AB (“Candidator” or “the Company”) from the private investment company Sobro and minority owners.

Established in 1997, Candidator is a managed IT services provider with capabilities for full IT outsourcing, providing its clients with mainly contractually recurring services, including cloud, hosting and application management. The Company has approximately 300 employees in Sweden and Norway with annual sales of around EUR 45 million. Candidator has managed to build strong customer relationships within the SME segment by combining customer focus with high quality IT solutions.

EQT Mid Market will support the continued development of Candidator’s growth strategy while strengthening its platform and developing its service offering, both organically and through acquisitions. The Company is expected to benefit from strong underlying secular trends, including increased share of IT outsourcing and growing cloud adoption.

“EQT has monitored the Swedish managed IT services market for a long time and identified Candidator as an attractive platform to drive the consolidation. We are impressed by Candidator’s strong financial performance and industry-leading customer satisfaction, successfully built by the founders and management. EQT’s expertise within the TMT and Services sectors, coupled with a strong network of Industrial Advisors will support Candidator’s further growth and development”, says Johan Dettel, Partner at EQT Partners, Investment Advisor to EQT Mid Market.

“We are excited about welcoming EQT as our new majority owner. Candidator is entering the next stage of growth in the Nordic managed IT services market and EQT will enable us to continue to develop our platform as well as future-proof our customer-centric service offering. Working together with EQT will empower us to build a leading Nordic managed IT services group”, says Johan de Verdier, CEO of Candidator.

HDR Partners served as M&A advisor to EQT Mid Market, White & Case as legal advisor, Bain as commercial consultant and KPMG as finance and tax advisor. All parties have agreed to not disclose the transaction value.

About EQTEQT is a leading alternative investments firm with approximately EUR 38 billion in raised capital across 25 funds. EQT funds have portfolio companies in Europe, Asia and the US with total sales of more than EUR 19 billion and approximately 110,000 employees. EQT works with portfolio companies to achieve sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

More info: www.eqtpartners.com

About CandidatorCandidator AB has offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Vara, Skövde, Bergen, Oslo and Alingsås, where the company has four modern data centers that deliver stable and efficient IT operations around the clock to the company’s approximately 400 contracted customers. Since the start in 1997, Candidator has shown strong growth and they currently have approximately 300 employees. The company’s strategy is to build long-term relationships with its customers by combining high levels of service with effective IT solutions that provide clear business benefits.

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